1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to phase equalization and more particularly relates to dynamic phase equalization in a communication channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices such as computers, communication devices, and the like, are transmitting data through communication channels at ever-higher rates. The demand for higher transmission rates is driven by increasing processing speeds that require data at higher rates and by an increasing volume of data that is transmitted both by organizations and by individuals.
Communication channels typically include a conductor. A transmitter drives an electrical signal encoding the data through the conductor to a receiver. The data may be recovered from the electrical signal received by the receiver. The data may be digitally encoded as binary values such as one (1) and zero (0). The transmitter may drive the conductor to a first voltage for a one (1) and a second voltage for a zero (0).
Electrical signaling speed is bounded by noise and loss in the communication channel. Although the noise in the communication channel may be contained by careful design, inherent electromagnetic properties of conductors such as skin effect, dielectric loss, and surface roughness loss reduce the electrical signal causing distortion and difficulty in recovering the transmitted data.
Some of the noise may be characterized as deterministic jitter. Deterministic jitter may be noise caused by the transition between the first and second voltages. The transition may introduce high frequency elements in the electronic signal. The high frequency elements may cause a voltage level to fluctuate. Data may be difficult to recover from the received electrical signal until the high frequency elements damp out.